Monday, December 30, 2013

Europe Trip Recap: Gimmelwald, Switzerland

Saturday, May 25, 2013 Lucerne to Gimmelwald, Switzerland

Mom and I woke up early to catch the train to Gimmelwald! We found a Migros grocery store to get some breakfast and some snacks and water for the our trip to the mountains. I knew there weren't any grocery stores in Gimmelwald.

I picked up a hazelnut crossaint, an iced coffee, and a rhubarb yogurt--all of which were so delicious!

We purchased lunch and then hopped on the clean and newer train.

The trip to the mountains offered amazing views of beautiful Switzerland, which I was happy my mom got a chance to see. We had a nice map on our train table, which helped us figure out where we were headed to!

There was a sweet couple from India across the way from us on the train and we chatted with them quite a bit. They had never seen snow until their trip to Interlaken, which was fun to hear! I love talking to random strangers while traveling, even if I am normally a little bit shy. Talking to them offered different views out the window too!

Once we arrived at Interlaken, we caught a train to Lauterbrunnen. Exiting there about twenty minutes later, we had to board a bus to Stechelberg across from the train station and went through the valley. Check out Trummelbach Falls--it was so gorgeous! The falls are a series of 10 waterfalls coming from the base of the Jungfrau.

The bus took us to the cable car station and we had to lug our huge suitcases up the stairs, not fun! It was a little scary in the foggy, rainy weather, but we made it safely! Mom didn't expect the cable car to be so big and I think she felt a little more reassured by the size.

Just a note for anyone who plans on traveling to Gimmelwald: we purchased a ticket that covered the train ride, bus and the cable car fees. It seemed easier to do it that way than to deal with cash.

Here is the station at the top!

The town of Gimmelwald is not that big, but we still found it difficult to find the house where we were renting a room in. I saw photos online before our trip, so I figured out that it was this place.

We also had trouble figuring out how to get in and the lady we were renting the room from was at work and we had no clue where work was for her. That was pretty frustrating at first and then I figured out that the key was in our separate door and that we were trying to get into her side of the apartment!

The place we stayed at was called Liesi's Heart Place and she thought of every little detail when putting together a room to rent in her house. The bedroom was separate from the bathroom, which was just down the hallway.

My journal notes that I thought mom would get bored really quickly in Gimmelwald and I was right. But, as I told her, we needed to rest a bit since we were spending lots of time in big cities and walking so much every day. I noted that I was sick of big tour groups and the smell of cigarettes. Gimmelwald definitely had neither of those!

We stepped outside to take some photographs of the outside of our little temporary house and then we went back in for an hour nap, which felt great to take!

Our entrance was on the right and Liesi's was on the left.

A view of our place from above! It really looks like it's right on the edge of the mountain here.

Once nap time was over, it was time to explore the city! I met this guy right away and he ended up being my little cat stalker two days in a row.

Like all of the cats I met in the mountains, he was super friendly and I really missed Tanzi.

These goats were quite talkative and fun to watch!

It started to snow!

Back towards the more busy side of town, we found The Honesty Shop. As the sign says, it's Europe's first unattended self-service village shop. We didn't find anything we needed or wanted, but it was fun to check out the random things for sale.

We found the Mountain Hostel, which has the only restaurant in town at that time of year (others open up in the summer).

The dinner menu had pizzas and traditional Swiss dishes like raclette and we thought we'd come back for dinner, but we never did.

We also found Erika's cheese hut, which pointed to her house to purchase some cheese, as she also seems to open up shop when the town gets busier.

I loved the huge cow bells on this house.

Back at the room, I couldn't help but look out the window quite often. It was so beautiful there!

I did miss having wi-fi and felt bad that we couldn't let Craig and my dad know that we were safe. Mom and I both settled in and read books.

We also plotted out our trip to Mürrenthe next day! I'll write a separate post about that next.